Chapter 22: The Chambers of Kharavel
The air in the subterranean tunnel was thick with mineral dust and the lingering, metallic tang left behind by the recent passage of colossal life forms.
Pulse, leaning against the damp, cold rock, finally processed the implications of Crystara's words. If his power, the ability to induce lethal vibrations and structural decay, could also enhance the abilities of others, he wasn't just a weapon; he was a catalyst.
"Fine," Pulse said, the single word sounding heavy in the confined space. "I'll try. But only when we're completely isolated... Well, like right now, no witnesses."
Crystara's smirk was sharp, reflecting the light from her choker, though her eyes held a serious calculation. "If you actually made me reach a new height... I think all the bureaus in the world will hunt you down. No, scratch that. They'd kidnap you, vivisect you, and farm you for enhancements. I guess it's the right choice to hide it from Doc or anyone else."
"Yeah, that's what I thought," Pulse agreed, a grim humor lacing his voice. He shifted his stance, flexing his armored fingers. "Maybe the bureaus would hunt me more than Revara if my ability actually worked on making people's power stronger and they found out. It's the ultimate strategic advantage."
Crystara pushed off the wall, a movement fluid despite the crystal remnants clinging to her skin from her recent transformation. "For now, let's just hide it. Our little secret, Pulse."
Pulse nodded, a silent agreement settling between them, cementing a bond of necessary conspiracy that felt dangerously intimate. "Yeah."
The agreement had barely left his lips when a sound like distant thunder rolled through the earth, growing exponentially louder.
The ground started to shake violently.
Crystara reacted instantly, her training overriding thought. A blinding flash of light erupted around her as she abandoned her human shape. Her body became a massive, solid piece of living geometry, the powerful crystal transformation taking hold. She was a statue of glittering, unyielding force, her skin converting to facets of blue, white, and violet crystal.
She moved with brutal efficiency, grabbing Pulse, who was still adjusting to the quake. She pulled him, pinning him hard against the tunnel wall. The crystal of her body was cold, sharp-edged, and utterly unyielding, pressing Pulse's armored front plate against the rough rock until the air was half-forced from his lungs. It wasn't a gentle shield; it was a vise of sheer, protective power.
Crystara, now a hardened, inhuman shell, hugged Pulse tighter as the tremors escalated from shaking to catastrophic vibrations. Pulse could feel the rhythmic thump thump thump of something gargantuan moving towards them.
Then, tearing through the roof of the tunnel a few dozen feet ahead, a monstrous shape ran past. It was a giant, segmented, centipede-like horror, its carapace dripping with viscous ichor, its myriad legs tearing the rock apart. The wind shear alone felt like a physical blow.
Before Pulse could even register the repulsive sight, the ground shook even more violently, the crystal shell of Crystara started to vibrate against his body. A second, even larger monstrosity followed the centipede. It was a giant, pale, segmented worm, its thick body filling the entire diameter of the upper tunnel. Two monstrous arms, thick as redwood trunks and ending in razor-sharp claws, scraped the walls as it chased its prey.
Crystara clamped down, the sheer force of her crystal arms leaving Pulse breathless. His armor scraped against her diamond-hard ribs, the material friction generating a low, resonant whine as she held him, protecting him from the debris and the sheer sonic assault of the passing behemoths. He was completely enclosed by her, trapped between the cold, raw power of her hardened form and the solid rock of Kharavel.
The worm monster was agonizingly long. It took what felt like an eternity for the massive, churning bulk to pass overhead. Finally, the earth settled into a dull, residual hum.
Crystara slowly relaxed her grip, the crystal form softening slightly before she allowed the transformation to recede, her warm, sweaty skin returning. She pulled back just enough to let Pulse breathe, though their bodies were still pressed together in the cramped space.
Pulse coughed, his voice rough. "Holy shit. Could we even kill those things?"
Crystara pushed a loose strand of hair back, her breath uneven. The close encounter had clearly taxed her, even in crystal form. "I definitely could solo them. Their bulk makes them powerful, but their armor is mostly keratinized rock, my crystal form can cleave that. But you know, this tunnel is still quite tight. Once we went deeper and finally arrived at chambers that could reach as high as hundreds of feet. That's when I fight these monsters. Down here, evasion is smarter."
Pulse swallowed, the adrenaline making his nerves buzz. "What if there's no chambers on the end?"
Crystara grinned, a touch of reckless defiance lighting her eyes. "There will be. The crust of Kharavel is like those cartoon cheeses with so many huge holes. And those big holes are like giant chambers where monsters mostly hang around. But it's also where precious materials are. The bigger the chamber, the less competition for the good stuff."
They traveled deeper for hours. The air grew warmer, carrying the distant smell of ozone and sulfur. Pulse kept his senses wide, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword, anticipating the next tremor.
Then, the tunnel abruptly opened.
When Pulse stepped into the Ginormous Chamber, he could only stare in mute awe.
It wasn't a cave; it was an environment. It was an unbelievably huge chamber, so vast that he felt like he had exited the cave and was looking up at a dark sky and a distant horizon. The ceiling vanished into an incomprehensible height, perhaps hundreds of feet above, and the walls were so far apart that they blurred into the gloom.
What illuminated this subterranean world were the giant glowing crystals embedded throughout the chamber. These crystals were immense, some the size of small buildings, and displayed thousands of different spectral types, from neon green spikes to deep violet geodes that pulsed with internal light. The light was mesmerizing, creating a cathedral-like atmosphere that was both beautiful and terrifying. It was truly an underground world.
Crystara stepped out beside him, her face alight with pleasure. "Beautiful, right? This is what I love about this planet. The treasure is worth the risk." She glanced back at the dark, narrow tunnel they had just exited. "Let's go down and finally grab some crystals."
The wall of the chamber descended steeply, too large and slick for a normal climb, but not for Crystara.
Her body began its dazzling transformation again. Blue light engulfed her, and she morphed into her powerful crystal state. The process was swift, leaving her a solid, angular being of sparkling force, her surface impossibly hard and cold.
"Climb on my back," Crystara commanded, her voice slightly muffled by the crystalline conversion but still carrying her characteristic confidence. "I will slide down. Hold tight, or you'll be the first to find out that being hurled off a hundred foot crystal lady is bad for your health."
Pulse didn't hesitate. He clambered onto her back, wrapping his arms securely around her hard, angular waist. His light armor provided minimal padding against her rigid form. In her crystal state, her endurance and strength were easily fifteen times that of a human, allowing her to bear his weight with zero effort while manipulating the descent.
Crystara started to slide.
It was less a slide and more a controlled, high speed plummet down the side of the towering chamber wall. She used her crystal arms and legs, digging shallow grooves into the softer rock faces, slowing them just enough to prevent vaporization upon impact.
Pulse grabbed tighter, his face pressed against the impossibly solid, cold facets of her back. The speed was dizzying, the echoing scrape of her crystal limbs against the rock wall deafening. He kept an endless stream of muffled curses and variations of "holy shit" muttering into her shoulder plate. It was terrifying, exhilarating, and intensely physical, clinging to a moving monument of power as they fell toward the gigantic chamber floor.
When Crystara finally arrived on the ground, she let the momentum bleed out into a powerful, grinding stop. Pulse collapsed off her back onto the soft, crystal littered floor, taking deep, shaky breaths. The transition from speed and chaos to stillness was jarring.
Crystara shimmered, briefly returning to flesh, then immediately back to a slightly less rigid crystalline form, enough to protect her but flexible enough to walk normally. "Told you I'd get us down safe."
"Safe is a relative term," Pulse wheezed, pushing himself upright. "I think my lungs are vibrating still... I think."
"Let's go find some beautiful treasures," Crystara said, already moving toward a cluster of massive, magenta colored crystals nearby.
Pulse dusted himself off, the cold precision of the fighter returning as the adrenaline subsided. "What exactly are we looking for, besides something shiny?"
Crystara paused, her crystal body glinting in the vast, ambient light. "I'm looking for a Noxfall Obsidion. It's a pitch black crystal that absorbs light rather than reflecting it. When touched, faint visions of distant stars flicker across its surface like memories of the night sky. Very rare, massive energy source."
She continued walking, scanning the ground. "But if we are lucky, we might find some Cosmere Shard. That's the real prize. A translucent crystal that floats a few inches above any surface. It hums softly and bends nearby light, as if the air around it is thinner than reality itself. Find a shard, and we retire for the next decade."
They searched for some time, navigating around smaller, glowing patches of common materials. These were still beautiful, shimmering gold filaments, turquoise geodes, and ruby red veins, but Crystara was bent on not wasting their time on anything less than miraculous.
Pulse, less focused on the geological value, kept a watch on their surroundings. The chamber was silent save for the faint, resonant hum of the large crystals.
As he checked a cluster of smaller, intensely bright blue stones beneath a shadowed overhang, Pulse saw something in the far distance move. The sheer scale of the chamber made immediate identification impossible. It was too tall, too thin, and too quick to be a naturally occurring structure.
He squinted, trying to pierce the gloom between the massive crystal formations. The object moved again, a long, disjointed stride covering dozens of feet with impossible speed.
Slowly, Pulse's face morphed into horror.
It wasn't a shadow, and it wasn't a part of the landscape. It was an entity. Incredibly tall, impossibly thin, and moving with a terrifying, loose limbed grace, the monstrous being was rapidly closing the distance through the shimmering fields of the underground world. Its silhouette was skeletal, yet massive, an approaching harbinger of brute, silent violence.
"Crystara," Pulse murmured, his voice tight, his hand already on his sword hilt, pulling the blade free. The vibration field activated instantly, causing the steel to hum with lethal energy.
"Yeah, I see it," Crystara replied, her tone dropping instantly from playful adventurer to cold warrior. Her crystal body tightened, the facets sharpening, ready for war. "Looks like the good stuff has a bodyguard."